McKinnon Secondary College

Berlin Wall & Unification

[Resources compiled by D Nutting]

The Wall

History

  1. Berlin Wall (Wikipedia article)
  2. Berliner Mauer (Wikipedia Artikel in deutscher Sprache)
  3. Die Berliner Mauer (intro text in German with conjunctions practice)
  4. Die Teilung Deutschlands (Artikel im A-Z Archiv von Sowieso Online-Zeitung)
  5. The vanishing Berlin Wall - from Hyde Flippo's »The German Way« - many links [though only a few in German] about the Wall.
  6. Die Berliner Mauer (@ Berlin.de - Die Mauer im Luftbild; Bau der Mauer; Öffnung der Mauer; Zahlen und Fakten; Mauer-Denkmale; Grenzübergänge) German/English
  7. Berliner Mauer Online (Geschichte; Die Mauer 1961; Chronik; Die Mauer heute; Fotos) German
  8. Die Geschichte der Berliner Mauer - 1) Background, 2) Construction, 3) Measurements, 4) Fall, 5) Memorial (German/English)
  9. History of Berlin and the Two Germanys from the end of WW2 to Unification (English; includes exercises for students)
  10. German Unification (historical summary in English from the German Information Center)
  11. German Internet Project: The Berlin Wall 1961-1989 (by Andreas Lixl; resources in German & in English)
  12. mauerfotos.de (500 Fotos der Berliner Mauer 1984-89) German/English
  13. Grenzerinnerungen - extensive site with documents, photos, diagrams and a detailed but succinct »Zeittafel« (timeline in table format chronicling the division of Germany and the history of the German-German border) German/English
  14. Die Teilung Deutschlands - interactive quiz on divided Germany 1945-90; up-to-date browser needed [this is the quiz you can do after viewing the PowerPoint presentation on a computer at school]

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Personal Feelings / Social Aspects, Life in the DDR etc.

Poster
  1. The Wall falls – Stefan Dreßler was a teenager at the time: his feelings and thoughts about the fall of the Wall and about life in the DDR and in the unified BRD.
  2. German Unification: Five Years After, 1989-1994 - moral and social aspects (English only)
  3. Eindrücke aus der ehemaligen DDR
  4. Gibt es eine "Mauer im Kopf"? (interactive reading exercise based on a German article from 1990; up-to-date browser needed)
  5. "Ein vereinigtes Deutschland / Nach dem Mauerfall / Die neue Mauer im Kopf"
  6. Quotes from articles about East-West relations - life for eastern Germans before and after the fall of the Wall (in German)
  7. "Five Years After Reunification - Easterners Discover Themselves"
  8. Das Leben in der DDR: Was war positiv? Was war negativ?
  9. Die DDR (Artikel im A-Z Archiv von Sowieso Online-Zeitung)
  10. Die Stasi (Artikel im A-Z Archiv von Sowieso Online-Zeitung)
  11. Die Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands (interactive reading exercise; up-to-date browser needed)

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Films

  1. (2001) "Goodbye Lenin" (main website) / entry at German-Cinema.de
  2. (1994) "Das Versprechen" (info from Dieter Wunderlich)
  3. "Das Versprechen" - review by Steve Rhodes / entry at German-Cinema.de
  4. (2001) "Der Tunnel" (info via Goethe Institut; film about a famous actual escape attempt under the Wall) / entry at German-Cinema.de
  5. (2006) "Das Leben der Anderen" (main website) / entry at Wikipedia in German and in English / student worksheet [icon for pdf file] (PDF, 80Kb)
  6. Background video -  "Test the West" (Simone Shoemaker)

Property Issues

Hintergrund zur Eigentumsfrage - Background

East German property claims (Compensation for Jewish victims of the Nazi Regime - New York Law Journal)

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Poems

"Das Eigentum" (Volker Braun)

"berliner begegnung" (Yaak Karsunke)

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Political Cartoons

East and West Cartoons over the Decades

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Picture Galleries

Berlin Wall Online

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Music

"Mein Berlin" (Reinhard Mey) - lyrics and learning tasks

"Der Sonderzug nach Pankow" (Udo Lindenberg):

"Wir wollen doch einfach nur zusammen sein" (Udo Lindenberg) - lyrics

"Der Generalsekretär" (Udo Lindenberg) - lyrics

"Neuland" (Herbert Grönemeyer) - lyrics of this song about difficulties of the two Germanys growing together (c/o german.about.com).

"Im Osten" (Kai Niemann) - lyrics to the upbeat pro-"Ossi" hit song.

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DDR/BRD Language Differences

Ostwortkatalog - A catalogue of words used in the DDR which weren't used in the BRD.

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»Ostalgie«: (nostalgia for aspects & objects of DDR life)

  1. Zwölf Fragen zur Geschichte der DDR (Stern Online). At the end of this online quiz you get information about the correct and incorrect answers.
  2. Ostalgie und Westalgie - Artikel bei Wikipedia
  3. ZDF: Ostalgie-Seiten. From the site of ZDF television.
  4. Made in GDR - various aspects of life in the DDR
  5. Offizielle Netzseite der DDR-Regierung im Exil - satirical webpage mourning the demise of the DDR

Various

Schild
  1. Mahn-, Gedenk- und Begegnungsstätte Point Alpha. "Point Alpha" was until 1989 and the end of the Cold War one of the most prominent observation bases of the US military forces in Europe along the West-East German border. It lay in the centre of the line of defence known as the Fulda Gap (»Fulda-Senke«). This was the spot through which an attack by Warsaw Pact troops was thought most likely. During the Cold War Point Alpha was considered the most tense spot along the border. Today there is a memorial museum there that shows a lot about the former border and the people affected by it.
  2. Deutsches Historisches Museum - Parteiauftrag: Bilder, Rituale und Symbole der frühen DDR (exhibitions; German/English)
  3. DDR-Witze - jokes about politics in the former DDR and the present situation between East and West

(Some of the links on this page take you to materials developed as part of: »Einheitsideen zum Thema "Deutschland: Ost und West", Mount Holyoke College USA, the 1998 NEH Summer Institute on Post-Wall Germany«)

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